Job Title:Advice and AssessmentWorker

Team:Advice and Assessment team

Reports To:Director of advice and assessment

Key Relationships:All Centre Teams

Background

Cardinal Basil Hume founded the Centre in 1986; we offer a diverse range of services for homeless young people, families in need and the local community on one site. Focusing on four areas of need - income, housing, education and skills, and legal status - the Centre enables people to gain the skills they need to overcome poverty and homelessness. The Centre has a person focussed approach to its work, providing one to one support to clients where desired, challenging and supporting them to articulate and achieve their stated goals. With an annual income in the region of £2.3 million, there are currently 54 staff members. In addition, the Centre benefits from the generous and diverse contribution of volunteers; there are currently some 130 active volunteers.

We have a number of teams working with the client ;Learning, Development and Employment, Service Development and Housing and Residential Services. One of the key tasks of this role will be to liaise with the team in the centre in drawing up effective plans of services for clients. You will be working within the Advice and assessment services team which comprises the Advice and Assessment team, a housing advice team and an Immigration Advice Service. We also have active partnerships with a range of organisations and agencies, which support and complement our internally delivered services. We provide residential services as well as day centre activities, including housing and immigration advice and money management, alongside English, IT and literacy classes, and family services. Finally there is a fully-fledged Medical Surgery on site.

The Advice and Assessment team comprisestwoAdvice and Assessment workers and a Duty Officer andis supported by a number of volunteers. The core task of the team is to manage the initial assessment process for people accessing the centre and to provide first line advice on issues such as Housing, Welfare Rights and immigration, and to ensure that clients are fully informed about what the Centre offers. If they are eligible under the Centre’saccess criteria, they will then be referred internally to CHC services and their progress tracked; if they are not eligible, they will be referred to the appropriate external agencies. The Centre currently registers around 100 new clients each month, and has an active client base of between 700 and 800 clients at any time.

Key Purpose:

To work effectively as a member of the Centre team in order:

  • To manage and be part of the welcoming face of the Centre for clients arriving for advice, to access services or find an appropriate alternative source of help and advice.
  • To manage and also conduct an initial assessment with the client in a sympathetic way ensuring that appropriate policies are applied and all data recorded and shared with the client.
  • To manage volunteers carrying out their duties in the client reception and assessment process.
  • To provide first-level advice to clients on a range of issues such as housing, benefits, and immigration as well as services available at the Centre.
  • To refer clients to appropriate services within the Centre, liaising with service staff to ensure that the client’s needs are fully understood.
  • To liaise with external agencies including other NGOs and statutory bodies in order to be able to refer clients to services which may be more appropriate for their needs.

All staff at the Centre are expected to assess risk on an ongoing basis inorder to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all clients and staff, sharing risk information where appropriate in line with both Centre policy and the legal framework; and to record risk data accurately on the client database. Staff are also required to work in line with the Centre’s agreed values and aims and in accordance with defined policies and procedures.

Key Tasks:

  • To manage the welcome ofnew and existing clients to the Gateway in a professional and sympathetic manner.
  • To manage and conduct initial face-to-face assessments with potential clients in a manner which actively involves the clientin the process; to analyse the client’s data to decide if they can be supported through access to internal services or referred to external agencies; and to communicate the chosen path to the client in a manner which is supportive and engaging and effectively manages the client’s expectations.
  • To ensure that initial assessment data is accuratelycaptured on data collection systems.
  • To identify emergency cases and deal with these appropriately, involving other services (internal and external) .
  • To assess the language and communication skills of new clients, in order to establish a process of communicating effectively with them,booking interpreters where appropriate.
  • To provide first level advice within the limits of the postholder’s knowledge and particular idendified areas of responsibility such as in housing, Welfare Rights, money management and immigration, as well as on the Centre’s services.
  • To liaise with service staff to ensure that they are aware of the needs of individual clients, and also to manage any issues arising e.g. extended waiting times for appointments, failure to attend appointments, etc.
  • To follow-up on clients referred externally and record outcomes of external referrals on the database; to continually develop the range of agencies to which the Centre can make external referrals.
  • To record information about meetings with clients on the Centre’s client database, and produce statistical information for management purposesas required.
  • To work with, support and supervise volunteers working in the Gateway
  • To represent the Gateway team on CHC working groups and at external meetings as requested by the Director of Advice and Assessment.
  • To promote a safe working environment for fellow workers, clients and visitors in line with the HASAW Act, and our Health and Safety policy, by reporting any safety hazards, concerns or ideas for improvement.

General:

  • Participation in monthly supervision meetings and an annual appraisal with your line manager
  • Compliance with the Centre’s policies as contained in the staff handbook and taking part in Centre wide activities as required.
  • Undertaking training identified as beneficial and in agreement with your line manager

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Essential

  • Experience of customer relations and dealing professionally with a wide range of demands and maintaining a warm, friendly approach in welcoming a diverse range of people.
  • Experience of providing front line advice and assessment in a social welfare law field.
  • Being sympathetic to the needs of homeless and vulnerable people and have experience in relating to people from different backgrounds.
  • Well-developed listening skills, the ability to communicate well and with confidence when dealing with public enquiries and the ability to ask open-ended questions and elicit basic information in an empathetic manner.
  • Experience of using a wide range of administrative skills in a busy office, with excellent computer skills in Microsoft Word and Excel.
  • Experience in populating and analysing data from a database and presenting it in a clear way.
  • Experience of case file management
  • An efficient and calm organiser with a professional and friendly manner and a flexible ‘can-do’ attitude.
  • Experience of working on own initiative
  • Willingness to learn new skills and share them with colleagues.
  • The ability to be approachable at all times, whilst maintaining professional boundaries and having the ability to maintain confidentiality.
  • Ability to set boundaries, challenge appropriately, and to manage conflict positively and constructively.
  • This role requires a flexible working pattern that currently includes one evening a week and occasional weekend and bank holidays.

Desirable

  • A basic understanding of either Arabic, Spanish or French.
  • Previous experience of providing advice in either Welfare Rights or Debt Qualifications relevant to working in advisory, housing or employment services would be an advantage.
  • Previous experience of working with and understanding of the rights for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
  • Experience of dealing with mental health issues and knowledge of services around this issue.

The Centre requires all its staff and volunteers to respect the ethos of the Centre and to be in sympathy with its aims and objectives. A commitment to respecting and implementing the Centre’s Equal Opportunity Policy is also expected. The Centre relies on the work and commitment of volunteers across all its projects and is committed to respecting and acknowledging their contribution.The Centre requires all its staff and volunteers to undertake a CRB police check.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

Salary: £26,500

Holidays: 24 days, rising to 26 after one year’s service, and 28 after two years

Notice Period: 1 Month

Pension: the Centre provides a stakeholder pension scheme and will match employee contributions up to a maximum of 6%

Probation Period: 6 months
Season Ticket Loan is available.

ETHOS

Cardinal Basil Hume, our founder, was a Benedictine monk and the Centre draws particularly on Benedictine teaching looking to welcome ‘as Christ’ each person who comes to the Centre, providing sanctuary and hospitality to people from all backgrounds. We believe that each person is created in the image of God, and is therefore valuable and precious with the right to the fullness of life: In the words of Cardinal Hume: “Each person matters; no human life is redundant”.

WITNESS

The Centre, inspired by Catholic Social Teaching, puts the Gospel message into action by reaching out to and giving practical help to those people in greatest social, economic and personal need.

“The fulfilment which the common good seeks to serve is the flourishing of humanity, expressed in the phrase ‘integral human development’. Such development requires that people are rescued from every form of poverty, from hunger to illiteracy; it requires the opportunities for education, creating a vision of true partnership and solidarity between peoples; it calls for active participation in economic and political processes and it recognises that every human person is a spiritual being with instincts for love and truth and aspirations for happiness.” (Choosing the Common Good, Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales 2010)

VALUES

With integrity we strive to be true to our founding ethos and to living out our vision and mission; we are honest, and we are accountable to our stakeholders.

With respect, we seek to be non-judgemental, to listen, and acknowledge each other's worth and to put people at the centre of our work.

Through compassion we will demonstrate our care for each individual who comes to the Centre in the quality and consistency of the services we offer to them.

To promote inclusiveness we reject social exclusion and welcome diversity; we offer our services regardless of racial origin, of religion or politics; we will not discriminate on the grounds of gender or sexual orientation.

To encourage empowerment we will provide holistic support to our clients in helping them to identify their needs and in making informed choices about their lives.